The War on Democracy

In The War on Democracy, journalist and documentarian John Pilger focuses on the ambivalent role played by the United States in promoting Latin American democracy, suggesting that American leaders have often favored oppressive regimes over more democratic alternatives. Pilger outlines the last five decades of political manipulation by the CIA and other U.S. agencies, focusing in particular on recent efforts to unseat the populist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Everything presented here is not only true but readily verifiable from the most reliable sources, including exhausting declassified government documentation. It elucidates very clearly a long and shameful history of United States involvement in Latin America. A similar polemic could be produced against US efforts in the Middle East, which have frequently undermined democratically elected governments in favor of oppressive regimes who are friendlier to western interests. This is a history hidden only to those who wish it were not so. For a proud American, it is a painful truth to bear, but true none the less. There is a reason why the whole world hates America. Yes, I do mean the whole world, travel and you will see. American involvement and the murderous terrorist organization known as the CIA have been responsible for millions of lives lost in countries from Iran, Indonesia, Vietnam, to Chile, Congo or Guyana. Worst yet, is the fact that American continue to believe themselves to be representatives of the world’s leading “democracy”, since the ignorant American population are too busy chasing after the Kardashians. Too proud to admit the wrongs of their own government, the American people make themselves accomplices to the countless crimes of their leaders and become willing servants of an oppressive regime hated from Cambodia where the Satanic CIA ran the heroin trade, to the Talaban of Afghanistan, to the destitute and downtrodden cities of Brazil. The film makes us realize that there is a human cost associated with Latin American commodities like bananas, mangos, and coffee we crave and demand here. Latin America has awoken from the nightmare of the military dictatorships sponsored by the CIA and State Department. This awakening cost countless lives, but finally it has awoken, and has begun the very slow and painful process of reclaiming its natural endowment and lifting its people out of the misery the USA government set so brutally upon it. Every American needs to see this film: every conservative, every liberal, every Bible-thumping fundamentalist, every radical activist. This is an important, honest look at American foreign policy from the receiving end — and it doesn’t sound very much like the versions we were told, which is becoming an alarmingly frequent occurrence these days. Documentary 2007 NR 1hr 33m.